


Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy

by GoodIdeaAtTheTime



Series: Slowly Moving Forwards [3]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Halloween!, Heero and Trowa giving each other shit, Inappropriate use of hand cream, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 05:21:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12574596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoodIdeaAtTheTime/pseuds/GoodIdeaAtTheTime
Summary: Halloween is here, and Duo is celebrating his birthday, his first one with Wufei. Wufei learns something unexpected about himself.SEQUEL TO SALVAGE.





	Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy

Halloween was, almost entirely without competition, Duo’s favourite holiday.

Christmas was great and all, and he loved spending time with his friends, but there was a lot of… piety associated with it. Some Christmas songs could get downright preachy, and he didn’t appreciate being made to feel guilty by some overpaid, overrated, ageing popster. Just, no.

But Halloween. Delightful, wonderful, irreverent Halloween. The time of year when people embraced darkness and creepiness, to whatever level they felt comfortable, gleefully and unashamedly, setting their own limits and holding the lines. Things were scary, but people took ownership over their fears, sought out frights and thrills, chased down terrors with wild abandon. From the week-long serious Horror Fest at the cinema, to the campy costume parties at the bars, to the trick-or-treaters, the decorations, the stories…

Every part of it appealed to his black sense of humour, and to his belief that people shouldn’t be afraid of what was lurking in the night - they should embrace it, own it, use it. The masses rising up to their demons, inviting them in, refusing to be cowed.

So when it had come to registering himself as a Proper Person following the war, finally creating records of himself and becoming a legit real citizen of the Earth Sphere, assigning himself a birthday hadn’t exactly required much thought.

His reasoning was thus - if Halloween was his birthday, he had an excuse to celebrate it no matter where he was. And, as his birthday, it meant he could force his friends to celebrate it too.

Which was why he was costuming up, ready to head to the bar for the annual Halloween Spectacular.

Although… this year was a little different.

He glanced towards the wall separating his room from the spare room, where his guests were getting ready, and couldn’t quite stop himself from indulging in a silly smile. Heero was here, of course, as he had been every year.

But this was going to be his first birthday with Wufei.

And not just with Wufei present, but  _ with  _ with Wufei. In a relationship sense. He still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it, that somehow this had happened, had worked out. Duo wasn’t used to getting what he wanted, occasionally struggled to trust that it was real, it was happening.

The distance hadn’t been easy, since things had started. They had coordinated business trips with work placements where possible. Wufei had spent a month on L2 in spring, Duo had been to Brussels for five weeks in the summer. They had managed a handful of long weekends when Duo had been able to arrange contracting in line with Wufei’s deployments, and each time had felt like a dream, separate from the world even when working, and entirely and utterly unbelievable.

Now Wufei was here, in his home, getting ready for his birthday party, before a week of actual holiday together. Like, fuck, that basically sorted out his birthday presents for the rest of his life.

Apparently he’d even brought a costume.

Duo was toning it down this year, aware that Wufei didn’t dress up very much, and possibly wouldn’t be comfortable being seen out and about with Duo in one of his more complex monstrosities. He fully expected that Wufei would be something understated, but the intention alone meant more than he could possibly express. Wufei was  _ here _ , coming to a party, in costume, for  _ him _ .

He was grinning stupidly again.

There was a quiet knock at his bedroom door and he tried to bring his expression under control.

“Yeah?”

“...I’m ready,” came Wufei’s voice, sounding slightly nervous, slightly hesitant. The Chinese man had insisted on not telling Duo what his costume was, and getting dressed by himself as a surprise. Duo suspected it was in case he second-guessed it and changed his mind.

Flinging the door open, he stood, stared, and couldn’t stop the expression of sheer delight that clawed its way onto his face.

“This,” he said in awe, “is the most glorious thing I’ve ever seen.”

From the tip of his suddenly vertiginous hair, to the soles of his heavy, steel-capped boots, Wufei embodied Punk. His hair had been styled into a giant faux-hawk, and fake piercings adorned his ears and nose. There was a black collar around his neck, with silver spikes, and his black t-shirt and stonewashed jeans were tight and ripped. the costume was completed with a studded leather jacket, replete with safety pins, and matching fingerless gloves.

“Well,” Wufei said, giving a small smirk that Duo knew meant he was both slightly embarrassed and secretly pleased, and oh how he loved that he knew that look, “you did say I’d make a good punk.”

“It’s better than I could have even dreamed,” Duo breathed, circling around him to take it in. “I love it. I love  _ you _ . This is fuckin’ amazing."

“I’m glad.” Wufei shifted slightly on the spot, flushing a little, his attitude entirely un-punk. “What’re you supposed to be?”

“Hm? Oh.” Bouncing over to the bed, Duo retrieved the last piece of his costume - the black stetson the Sweepers had gifted him for Christmas one year - and set it on his head, turning to show off. “Ta-da!”

He was a fairly toned down cowboy, he had to admit. Without the hat he just looked slightly eccentric - a white shirt, with black waistcoat and jeans, his cowboy boots and a long black duster. If he’d only known what Wufei was planning…

“...Everything okay?” he asked, finally, after a long moment of silence with Wufei staring quizzically at the hat. The other man blinked, and looked a little startled.

“Oh, yes! You… you look good.”

“I usually go a bit more all-out,” Duo admitted, a little ruefully. “But, y’know…”

“Are you guys coming or did I just do this shit for no reason?” Heero called from the living room.

Sharing a look for a moment longer, they stumbled out, Duo snagging his wallet from the dresser to stuff into his coat, to see what Heero had in store. And when he did, he laughed outright.

Waiting by the door, the Japanese man was dressed in faded blue jeans and brown boots, with a green turtleneck jumper. He had combed all his hair forwards and across one side of his face, evidently holding it in place with whatever hair gel had been left after Wufei’s hawk had been cemented.

This was going to be a wonderful night.

  
  


*

 

The bar was already busy, filled with brightly coloured costumes. Duo’s carefully curated Halloween playlist was blasting over the speakers, and Hells managed to get drinks lined up for them before they got to the bar. There wasn’t a chance to speak, but she managed to nod her head over to the booth where the others were waiting.

Sure enough, as they slid their way through the crowd, Hilde spotted them and leapt up, waving and shouting, her pirate costume firmly in place. Quatre was sat beside her, leaning slightly to the side to avoid getting cuffed around the head with her foam sabre. He was dressed in an elaborate red frock coat and knee breeches, a powdered wig knocked slightly askew by Hilde’s enthusiasm, and a small black mask across his eyes.

“What’re you?” Duo demanded when they drew close enough.

“The Scarlet Pimpernel,” Quatre said, as if it were obvious.

Trowa slid out of the booth to make room for them, and paused when he saw Heero.

“Well,” he said after a space. “This is awkward.”

Clad in bicycle shorts, a green tank top and yellow sneakers, Trowa’s full face was unusually in view, his hair mussed instead to look perhaps as though he had recently been blown up. Heero glared at Quatre.

“You told!” he accused.

“I did not! Although I had an awfully hard time keeping a straight face when Trowa told me his plan.”

“Is this some secret fantasy of yours that we need to tell Relena about, Q?” Duo asked with a leer.

“Or perhaps some fantasy of Relena’s I should be concerned with?” Quatre shot back.

The pair were forced to pose for a photograph which was sent to their absent friend, trapped as she was at a diplomatic function under Sally Po’s watchful eye. Trowa then snagged Duo’s hat and disappeared to the bar, returning several minutes later with a tray of shots.

He was greeted with cheers from everyone, and another slightly quizzical look from Wufei, as the stetson was passed back onto Heero. Duo would have to ask him about that later.

“Happy Halloween!” Duo cried, holding his shot aloft in a toast.

“Happy Birthday!” The others responded, before knocking the drinks back.

  
  


*

  
  


“Okay, Q,” Duo began, as he slouched against Quatre's side, Hilde sprawled against him in turn. “This Scarlet Pimpernel costume of yours…”

“Yes?” Quatre sipped delicately at his drink, his wig on the table and Duo’s Stetson on his head. Across the table, Wufei frowned at him, and Trowa and Heero continued to do impersonations of each other.

“Oh, no,” said Trowa in a monotone, “my drink is empty. The only answer is to self destruct.”

“If Heero's going to self destruct, I’ll have to self destruct too,” Heero stage whispered to Wufei, “or he won't think I’m as cool as him.”

“I don't want to seem negative,” Duo continued, “but it looks a lot like the Beau Brummell costume you wore last year.”

“Does it?”

“There's this girl I really like,” Trowa told Wufei, who wasn't particularly happy about being in the middle of this performance art piece that was suddenly going on around him. “She keeps following me everywhere, but I’m not sure if she likes me back. But I’ve worked out how to win her over - I’m going to kill her brother. That’ll cinch it for sure.”

“I am conflicted about my feelings towards this super hot guy who obviously is obsessed with me,” Heero declared. “I think I’ll talk to some lions about it.”

“Hey,” Quatre said, “leave me out of this.”

“An’ I may be wrong,” Duo said, pulling Quatre's attention back to him, “but it's also  _ really _ similar to the King George costume the year before that.”

“Is it really?”

“I know,” Heero cried, “I’m just going to throw  _ literally everything I have _ at this problem. That should sort things out right away, and have no repercussions at all should it not immediately remove the issue.”

“I'm going to avoid dealing with the problem altogether,” Trowa shot back. “Instead, I’m going to go out of my way to pick a fight with someone entirely unrelated, and hope everyone else sorts things out while I’m gone.”

“I don't wanna seem suspicious, Q,” Duo said, reaching up and retrieving his hat. “But I think you might only have one costume.”

“That seems a little unlikely, doesn't it?” Quatre asked innocently, as Duo sat upright, dislodging Hilde and settling the Stetson back on his head. “Surely I, of all people, could afford more than one costume.”

“I’m just sayin’, it's that or you’ve bought three identical costumes.”

“Oh look, this person has been recently blown up, and may have suffered severe spinal trauma. I know, I’ll scoop him up in my mobile suit’s hand, and then _ leave him there _ on the  _ back of a truck _ while I drive away. That seems like sound medical practice.”

“Wufei! I spilled a drink on you! Don't worry, I’ll let you shoot me in the face as an apology. Oh, you don't want to? I’ll just have to  _ drive around Europe _ to find someone who will.”

“I'm going to go get a napkin,” Wufei said, pushing Trowa out of the booth. “And I’m not sitting next to those two when I come back.”

“I will,” Hilde said, standing abruptly, a wicked gleam in her eye as she sashayed around the table. “You think you guys can give each other shit? I know things. Who wants to go first?”

“...You know what, I’m okay,” Trowa said.

“Yeah. I think we’re good.”

“Spoilsports.”

  
  


*

 

Duo was headed to the office to grab some more change for Helen when he bumped into Wufei, cleaned up and on his way back to the table. Pleasantly tipsy, and slightly giddy, it seemed like a wonderful idea to grab Wufei’s arm as he passed, whirl him back into the office doorway and kiss him senseless. So he did.

“Happy birthday to me,” he purred as they separated, and he smiled down at his boyfriend, taking a moment - another moment, he’d taken so many, and he didn’t think he’d ever stop wanting to savour this - to memorise the expression on Wufei’s face after a kiss. “Thanks for coming, it’s so great that you’re here. Are you having fun?”

“I - hm.” Wufei paused, leaned back and studied Duo thoughtfully, before inclining his head at the office door. “Is this open?”

It wasn’t, but Duo was able to correct that quickly, knocking the light on as they slipped inside, and watching curiously as Wufei locked the door behind them.

“Is everything alright?”

Wufei didn’t answer. Instead he turned, and studied Duo again, long and careful, with a puzzled frown. Just as it had gone on long enough that the American was about to ask what the matter was, he had his arms full of punk. Wufei surged against him, arms around his waist, one snaking up his back, the other hand firmly on his ass as he was steered back across the room until his legs hit the desk on the far side.

It briefly occurred to him to question what brought this on - Wufei was still not completely comfortable with public displays of affection, usually preferring gentle brushes of hands and nudges of hips to kissing. Although, he supposed, locked in this office wasn’t exactly public…

Oh but God this was hot. He adjusted himself to sit on the desk, and Wufei clambered up, straddling his lap and plunging hands into his hair to hold him in place. For someone who hadn’t done much kissing prior to this relationship, Wufei was a quick learner. His lips and tongue were wreaking absolute destruction on Duo’s higher thought processes, nerve endings sparking and tingling at every touch.

He gripped Wufei’s hips, pulling their crotches together and grinding up, letting out a helpless moan as he felt the tight ass flex inside those sinfully tight jeans, felt the answering bulge meet his. Seeing the dark haired man come undone during sex was the most erotic thing Duo had ever come across, watching and feeling him just give in and chase the pleasure his body was feeling, tumble over the point of resistance and let the sensations drive his movements.

That would have to wait though. This was a glorious taster of what to expect when they got home, but if he didn’t stop now they’d end up going further than Wufei would be happy with.

With a regretful sigh he started to pull away, releasing Wufei’s mouth and loosening his grip on his hips. He was about to apologise, but before he could he found his wrists clamped in an iron grip, his lips seized again, and he was pressed back to lie across the desk, the weight of a very determined Preventer pinning him down and grinding against him.

Holy shit.

The sound he made was surprised, strangled, and utterly wrecked with arousal, erection throbbing and leaking in his boxers, and Wufei seemed to like it because he half-moaned, half- _ growled _ , and just kissed him harder.

“Wait, wait,” he managed to gasp, when Wufei paused to kiss his neck and bite gently at his collarbone, causing him to buck his hips up helplessly towards him. “Are we…? Is this…?”

Wufei pulled back far enough to meet his eyes, and the heat in his gaze shot right through Duo’s belly to make his cock pulse, but with an edge of concern and caution that went right to his heart, and holy fuck he was the luckiest man in the whole fuckin’ Earth Sphere.

“Unless you don’t want to…?” Wufei asked, giving him the out.

“Unless I don’t...? Are you fuckin’  _ kidding  _ me?” He scootched back on the desk so his position was less precarious and began to tug at Wufei’s shirt, torn between pulling that off or undoing his pants.

There was a bit of coordinated fumbling, and then Wufei’s jeans were off, Duo’s were round his knees, shirts had been discarded, and red, weeping cocks came into contact. The braided man could have wept at the sensation, he was so turned on and keyed up. He arched back off the desk, the stetson becoming dislodged as he did so. He swatted it away, only to find it retrieved and firmly replaced on his head.

That snapped him out of things for a second, and he opened his eyes to see Wufei trying very hard not to look like he’d done anything unusual, but aware that he had been caught out, flush riding high on his cheeks.

“Oh my god,” Duo spluttered, delighted. “Oh my god,  _ you like the hat _ .”

“Shut up.”

“You’ve got a cowboy kink, you - aa-ahh _ …” _

“I  _ said _ ,” Wufei repeated, twisting his wrist as he slicked lotion over Duo's erection, and where had he even got that anyway? “ _ Shut. Up. _ ”

The most response he could formulate was a breathless whimper, flexing his hips up and down in time with his lover’s hand. A second whimper followed when the hand disappeared, only to wrap around one of his wrists and lotion was smeared across his fingers. Wufei leaned forward, bracing his arms on either side of Duo’s head, catching his lips in another brain-melting kiss whilst guiding Duo’s hand to the right place.

His cock twitched as his fingers skirted over the tight entrance he found, groaning into Wufei’s mouth as he felt the other man press back against him, wanting more than the teasing touches he was currently getting. Never one to deny his boyfriend anything, Duo pushed his first finger slowly inside, and the combination of the heat and tightness, as well as the sounds coming out of Wufei, nearly did for Duo right then.

Taking his spare hand from Wufei’s hip to squeeze at the base of his own cock and try to regain some control, he watched the other man’s face, mesmerised, as he arched above him, rocking back against Duo’s fingers - two now - eyes closed, a sheen of sweat across his forehead, breath coming in gentle pants, eyebrows only slightly furrowed in concentration. Muscles tight across his shoulders and neck, corded and solid with tension.

He was glorious.

The third finger drew a ragged groan from Wufei, followed by a sharp gasp as Duo crooked them just right - the jolt shook through the body over him, and Wufei pushed back hard against his hand, pre-come dripping onto Duo’s bare stomach. Jesus fuck.

“D’you think-?”

“Yes.”

A brief shifting of weight, and then a hand around his cock was guiding him into place, and slowly, maddeningly, torturously slowly, he was taken inside as Wufei sank down onto him, the heat and tightness surrounding him like electricity through his body, growing stronger with every inch. He watched, breathless, as their hips came together, certain he would never get used to the sight, certain he never wanted to think it anything less than a fucking miracle, and -  _ oh _ , shit, that was it.

Fully seated, the other man paused, taking a moment to relax his body, breathing carefully through his nose. Duo gripped his hips, using the time to admire the view, the strong thighs, that gorgeous cock, the abs, chest and arms that would’ve made sculptors weep, and -

“What are you laughing at?” Wufei asked, not opening his eyes.

“I’m not,” Duo said, his voice tight with the effort not to laugh out loud. He wasn’t laughing, he was trying very hard.

“I can feel your stomach twitching,” Wufei told him dryly, and then smirked. “It’s making other things twitch.”

The muscles wrapped around him clenched as Wufei spoke, and his hips jerked up instinctively, startling a groan out of him, which then ended in a breathless chuckle.

“I - I just noticed your hair again,” Duo explained, whilst Wufei leaned forwards once more, hands braced on either side of his head, shifting the angle and making both of them gasp slightly. “Caught me by surprise.”

“I’m impressed you managed to forget about it,” Wufei said, and started gently rocking himself onto Duo’s cock, drawing stuttering breaths from his victim, whilst Wufei’s own breathing and speech seemed entirely under control, damn him.

“Was - was focussed on other things,” was all Duo could gasp out.

His body was more eloquent than his words, however, seamlessly meeting Wufei’s movements as the thrusts sped and deepened. His senses were flooded, the smell of the other man, the feel of his thighs and hips flexing beneath Duo’s hands, the taste of him as he leaned up to kiss him again. The sounds he was making and the sight of him, face shaped in pleasure and arousal, a sight no-one else had ever seen - it was a gift even without the perfect, tight heat he was plunged into again and again.

He managed to hook one of his feet onto the desk chair, giving himself more purchase to deepen his thrusts, speed them up, and Wufei let out a surprised moan that was deep and rich, and utter aural destruction. The rhythm faltered slightly as he took Wufei’s cock in hand, but the Chinese man compensated, letting his body take control as it alternately pressed down onto Duo and thrust up into his slick grasp.

This was what Duo loved best - watching Wufei give up that iron grip on his self-control, knowing the huge amount of trust he must have in Duo to do that, and giving in to the sensations and feelings, and… there it was. The way his hips shifted just slightly, adjusting to get  _ more _ , a sign he was close. Something Duo had learned since the spring, a tiny intimate detail, an intimate movement in an intimate moment, so small Wufei probably didn’t realise he was doing it, and it was immensely precious to Duo.

Sensation sparked across his skin, electric and hot, and coiled down through his body to the pit of his stomach, dragging through his cock. He could feel the same tension building in Wufei - his erection was dribbling into Duo’s hand, rock hard and thick. All it took was a slight tightening of his grip, a minute quickening of his pace, and Wufei was rocking back onto him with abandon, clenching around Duo, driving them both towards the edge.

A tell-tale hiccuping hitch of breath, and then hot come spurting through Duo’s fingers and onto his stomach. The grip around Duo’s cock tightened impossibly further, and he grunted as he pushed up into it with abandon, pressing in deep as he felt his own orgasm rip through him, hips flexing and shuddering as he spilled himself.

“Jesus  _ fuck _ ,” he managed to gasp out when he’d caught his breath.

“Mm,” Wufei agreed, forearms on Duo’s chest, forehead nestled on his collarbone, curled over him as the last tremors worked their way out of his body.

Stroking the back of his boyfriend’s neck with his clean hand, Duo pressed a kiss to his head and grabbed for the box of tissues he knew Helen kept on her desk.

It took some coaxing to get Wufei to roll off him, sprawl beside him on the desk awkwardly, but once he did Duo cleaned them both off, balling up the used tissue to take to the bathroom once they were dressed. Wufei pulled him down for a long and gentle kiss, and Duo sprawled next to him, staring amazed at this man - this incredible, impossibly wonderful man, who was drastically out of Duo’s league but somehow,  _ somehow _ , was right here beside him.

“Where did you get the lotion?” he asked, suddenly remembering.

“Oh.” Wufei’s brow wrinkled as he thought, then he reached behind him, hand scrabbling blindly for something. “I found it on the desk.”

He presented Duo with a tube of aloe vera hand cream, and Duo laughed, and then couldn’t stop laughing as something else occurred to him. Wufei watched him for a moment, before an affectionate but put-upon expression passed over his face.

“Let me guess,” he sighed. “You know a stupid song for this.”

“I really  _ really _ know a stupid song for this,” Duo told him, cackling helplessly.

  
  


*

  
  


Stood on a chair in the middle of the bar, the crowd around Duo laughed and danced, singing loudly along with him to the music. Wufei was stood a distance away with the guys from the L2 Preventers branch, catching up, but he caught Duo’s eye as the chorus came on and the braided man raised his beer in a toast as he twirled on the chair, getting a smirk in response.

“And all the girls say?” he shouted.

“Save a horse, ride a cowboy!” his audience yelled back obediently.

“And everybody says -”

“ _ Save a horse, ride a cowboy _ !”

The song wound its way to an end, Heero pulled him off the chair and pressed another drink into his hand. Hilde and Quatre gave him a standing ovation as he returned to the booth, and Trowa stole his hat again.

Wufei joined them with the Preventers - dressed, en mass, as a mountain climbing group. Roped together, apparently they had taken great glee in making it extremely difficult for each other to try and get phone numbers. Merrick and Sayid had delighted in ruining Williams’ chances with a very charming tomato, whilst all four of the men had taken it upon themselves to form a protective square around the two women, meaning they had the most peaceful night at a bar ever. The only uncoupling allowed was for bathroom use, but that simply meant Sayid and Merrick unroping from the guys, and the rest of them remaining tied together.

“It seemed like a really funny idea when Lang suggested it,” Shiels said, with good-natured resignation. “We just forgot to remember exactly who we were volunteering to be tied to.”

Duo lounged back into the booth, arm draped around Hilde, and watched with a face-splitting grin as friends and acquaintances circled around him, drifting over to say hi, before circulating back to their groups. More than he expected, he was always surprised by how many people he knew through work or hobbies, how many of them cared enough to check in with him. Helen managed to escape from behind the bar for long enough to deliver a birthday cocktail, sparkler included, and give him a rough hug. A text back from Relena showed that she and Sally had finished their meetings, and hastily cobbled together costumes of Quatre and Wufei in their hotel room, the photograph causing delighted howls of laughter from everyone who saw it. He could see Wufei settling in the booth across from him, and giving him a tender and indulgent smile, and he felt a warmth entirely separate from the alcohol.

He didn’t have much experience, but he figured this was what families were like. 

  
  


*

 

Sprawled on the bed, feeling comfortably fuzzy in his pjs, Duo blinked lazily up at the ceiling.

“Did you get it all out?” he asked, as the door opened and Wufei padded into the room, his own pair of loose pj pants sitting low on his hips, and punk paraphernalia all carefully removed.

“I think so,” Wufei grumbled, towelling his hair dry. “I had to just about boil my head to get it to start breaking down though. It’s a good job this only happens once a year.”

Humming happily, Duo rolled onto his side and watched his boyfriend putter around getting ready for bed. It was late enough, but they had nowhere to be in the morning, and Wufei had declared that he wouldn’t sleep until he had got every bit of cement off his head. Heero had grunted and disappeared to the guest room, and Duo had changed out of his costume and made it as far as the top of the bed whilst he waited.

It was a nice novelty having Wufei in his space like this. The other man hadn’t been back to L2 since the visit in the Spring, and then he had stayed in the spare room for the few nights he had slept over. Aside from Brussels a few months later, their other meetings had been in impersonal hotel rooms. Great for the fact that they could see each other, but this was different. Maybe it was the alcohol, but it felt warm and domestic, safe and comfortable. His home. His boyfriend. Perfect.

“I love you,” he told Wufei seriously, tilting his head to look up at him as Wufei tugged the covers back and clambered into the bed.

He paused, and smiled down at Duo, gently brushing his bangs out of his face.

“I love you too.”

“No, but I mean it though,” Duo insisted. “I want you to know.”

“And I  _ don’t _ mean it?” Wufei arched a sardonic eyebrow at him. “Get into bed. I’ve got something for you.”

“You had somethin’ for me earlier,” Duo quipped with a leer, obediently scrambling under the duvet. “Wait, no, I said no presents,” he protested, when he realised Wufei was leaning off the bed to retrieve something from the side table. “You comin’ up was enough.”

“Take it anyway,” Wufei insisted, handing him a small, brown envelope.

It was blank, not even sealed properly, and Duo frowned at it - part in curiosity and part in annoyance that Wufei had ignored him on the ‘no presents’ front - as he shuffled himself around so he was leaning against the other man as he flipped the envelope open and tugged out the contents inside. Wufei’s arm draped around his shoulder, gently stroking his hair, silent as Duo read.

It was a letter, official, on plain white office paper with the Preventers’ header.

“Confirming request to relocate from Brussels to L2…” Duo read, and then blinked, and re-read it. “Request  _ authorised _ ? What? Does this - is this -?” He twisted to stare up at Wufei, who looked a little nervous, but nodded.

“I start in December,” he said quietly. “It’s a bit of a pay cut, because I’ll be taking less front-line work, and I absolutely refused to take on a senior management role here, but Une said it should even out on ‘consulting bonuses’ in the long run, and - is everything alright?”

The expression of awe, wonder and disbelief on Duo’s face must have been causing some confusion. His fingers ran over the paper in his hand, as if he could feel the letters printed on it. There was no way, he thought, no way this would be possible. Eight months ago he wasn’t sure even a friendship with Wufei would be possible, and now he was  _ moving _ here? For  _ him _ ?

“You don’t… mind, do you?” Wufei asked, looking really rather concerned.

“Mind? What?” Duo shook himself out of his stupor and scrambled to sit up so he could see him properly. “This is amazing! I just - you didn’t have to do this for me, y’know?”

“It made sense,” the other man said, clearly relieved. “You have a life, and a business, here. I can do my job wherever, and, well, here is where I’ve had the most luck at having anything remotely like a life other than that anyway, so…”

“Oh, yeah!” Duo gripped his shoulders, excited. “Have you told the others? They’ll be so pleased to have you back! They always ask after you when they see me!”

“I told them earlier,” Wufei confirmed, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Apparently I’m to join their trivia team.”

Letting out a bark of laughter, Duo pulled Wufei to him, kissing him soundly, mind racing.

“This is gonna be great,” he declared as they pulled apart, already in planning mode, mentally doing an inventory and making a to-do list. “I can get another set of drawers in here for you, and we can maybe set up a desk for you down this end of the other room, by the window? That way I won’t be in your way when you’re workin’, and Tu Shen’s tank can go over by the door to the terrace, and -”

“Duo,” Wufei interrupted, gently but firmly. “I’m not going to move in with you. Not right away,” he added hastily, feeling Duo tense and the flash of vulnerability speed across his face before he could catch it. “I’m back in the apartment I stayed in when I was last up.”

“That’s dumb,” Duo told him, frowning, pulling back slightly. “I own this place, why’re you wastin’ money on rent when you could live here for free? And that was a fuckin’ shitty apartment. We can redecorate if you like, if that’s what the problem is. I can work with anythin’ you want - there’s room to extend further over the workshop too if you want more space, an’ -”

“Calm down,” Wufei ordered, squeezing his hand gently. “It’s not forever, it’s just -” A pause, a sigh. “We need to learn how to live together when we’re both in a normal routine,” he explained. “Every time we’ve seen each other it’s been holidays and work trips. The rules are different.”

“I mean yeah, but…” Duo frowned down at the piece of paper in his hand. “We’d just hafta learn things anyway, might as well get it all out of the way at once, right?”

“We’ll still see each other,” Wufei reassured him. “And there will definitely be sleepovers,” he added, with a wry grin. “But, be honest, you’re just excited about the idea of having me around. It’d be a shock to the system to have me in your space, all the time, all at once. I know it would be for me.”

There was a long pause as Duo pouted thoughtfully, and filtered the words through his alcohol-fogged brain. He supposed, considering they hadn’t spend more than a weekend together since July, that maybe suddenly being around each other all the time would be a bit much, a bit of a leap. But with Wufei nearby, at least he could see him when he wanted. And, theoretically, that could still be every day.

It would be at their control, not working around other circumstances. That would be a luxury.

“I hate it when you’re right,” he muttered, smoothing out the letter and setting it on his bedside table. When he turned back, Wufei was smirking at him in a self-satisfied manner that was both maddening and sexy as hell, and technically it was still his birthday, because they hadn’t gone to sleep, so he indulged himself by kissing the smirk right off his face.

When they pulled apart, Duo had pressed him back down onto the mattress, damp hair mussed up beneath his head. He took in the sight of Wufei sprawled on his pillows, face flushed and lips kiss-swollen, and couldn’t breathe for a moment.

“I love you,” he said again. “I can’t believe you’d do this. Thank you.”

“I love you too,” Wufei told him.

“I’d love to get some damn sleep,” Heero called through the wall. “It’s not your birthday any more, Maxwell, so shut up!”

Letting out a delighted laugh, Duo bounded off the bed, leaving a startled Wufei behind, and burst into the spare room, to Heero’s dismay, snatching one of the pillows to start smacking him around the head with it. Heero let out an annoyed shout, but met him pillow-for-pillow. He could hear Wufei calling an amused ‘good night’ through the wall.

Wrestling with his friend - his family - with his boyfriend in his bed, after an evening spent with some of his closest friends, in his favourite place.

Duo had never felt luckier in his life.

Birthdays were great.

  
  
*

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks a million to Kangofu-cb for beta reading and encouraging this utter nonsense, and to everyone who has encouraged this series so far. It means an awful lot, and you are all wonderful.
> 
> The mountaineering group costume was done by some of my dad's friends many years ago. One poor lad spent the whole night trying to chat up a girl he fancied whilst the others took great delight in pulling him away. The evening ended with all six of them slow dancing with her.


End file.
